St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-01-08
CARE OF THE COLT.
Herr the Development of Its Muscles anu
Strength is Facilitated.

Rc,1y the Development of Its Muscles ana
Strength is Facilitated.
Horses are kind of livestock which
are left largely to take care OF them
selves in a certain sense. We busy
ourselves about our cattle, sheep ana
swine. How shall we feed-what shall
we do to make the calf, the lamb ana
pig more valuable, we ask time and
time again. But the colt comes, grows
and reaches maturity, under about the
same treatment that has been common
for hundreds of years. True enough,
the system of management that is gen.
orally adopted is not a bad one. at all
events it answers. But that is not
quite enough in these days when we
wish to produce perfection as nearl as
possible. Are our horses as good as
they might be if the growing animals
were fed at all times upon strictly
scientific basis? None of us will give
an affirmative answer to the question
if we properly understand the effect of
feeding. The horse is valuable in
proportion to the development OF its
muscle. A weak horse is very poor
property strong horse is good prop
erty. Consequently, the food given
the colt and young horse-and, IN fact,
the mature horse-needs to be largely
of the muscle-formlng character. Their
food does not need, and must not con-
tain, so large a proportion Of the car
bonaceous elements as do those which
are fed to tlesh-producing animals. In
Rn lott
the object in feeding is fat, while in
the former case we want to produce
only u moderate amount of fat and a
great deal of muscle. Very often the
horse is fed entirely too much corn. AS
portion of the horses food, and even
of the colts, corn is good, but to feed
a colt too much of this specially fat
producing food is ruinous. And in
order to keep the matter steadily be-
fore the reader, we again call the at
tention in this connection to the neces-
sity of keeping the muscular and bony
systems up in all animals and at all
times. This applies even to fattening
animals.
Now, when the colt is getting its
food from the dam, it is getting the
following elements, which is the COM
position of mares milk: Casein, $40
per cent; butter, $50; milk sugar,
3.52; ash, .53, and water, 9005 per
cent. In mares milk the dry matter,
that is, food, is about 10 per cent
9.95 per cent, to be exact-and some
thing more than one-third of this is
casein. The milk of the mother of the
colt, therefore. furnishes one part of
muscle-forming food to two parts of
the carbonaceous elements. With this
lesson of nature before us we make a
mistake when we feed too largely a
food which contains so large a proper
ton of starch as corn, barley, etc. If the
dam gives sufficient milk, the colt will
need nothing else for six months. But
if the mare should give an insufficient
quantity, it must be supplemented with
something else, for we think it must be
stated as fact, whether it is always
observable or not, that colt that
is insutiiciently nourished during
the first six months of its life never
RECEIVERS what it thus loses. Its slowness
of growth, under such circumstances,
is not the worst of it. Its digestion
becomes weakened. The stomach of
the young animal, unless extended by
sufficient quantity of food, becomes
contracted, and so when it is weaned
it does not hold enough to furnish the
system with what it needs. Young
animals, it must be remembered, can
not grow ON nothing. 1t is their food
that gives them growth, and the more
food they utilize the more rapid will
be their growth.
II the dam, after generous feeding
to that end, does not give enough milk
to satisfy the colt, the ratio should be
increased by giving cows milk, which
is nearly the same in composition as
that of the mare. We advise giving
fresh milk first, under such circ,lnl-
stances, but skim-milk may soon be
given, and that contains precisely the
elements which the growinr system
most stands in need of. Two quarts
a day, given in the morning and at
night, is about the proper amount for
colt two months odd, Some sweeten
it little, and it is good plan, al
though but very little sugar should be
added. The colt may be allowed to
eat oats as soon as it will, and as soon
as it - weaned we would give it
little !inseed meal with oats, and thus
leach it to eat. Linseed meal is excel
lent food for colt. One breeder
writes that he gives to colt eight
months old half-pint of flaxseed
boiled il four quarts of water, and
then two quarts of bran or oatmeal
boiled with it, fed twice a day in equal
parts. Farmer.
-Farmer Hillman, of Sharon, Ca,
looking for gold on his farm found a
snot whore fhe soil wac curiouclv die